Time to Lose the Box! Challenge Conventional Thinking by Co-creating with Global Consumers

On 15th March, 2017, AMSRS (Australian Market & Social Research Society) invited Francois Petavy, CEO of eYeka to talk about how brands challenge conventional thinking and build competitive advantage through disruptive ideation by co-creating with the collective intelligence of global consumers.

What eYeka has learnt from over 1,000 projects co-creating with global brands and its creative community is that brands need to step outside the sea of sameness, strike a more emotive chord with consumers and invite some freshness into its conversation. That’s what crowdsourcing is all about – “invite people who are completely unrelated, marginal, different, who may not know anything about your industry, but don’t like the experience they’re getting… what we’re trying to do is to bring that insight to brands.”

Francois spoke about some common myths about crowdsourcing and how eYeka proves them wrong:

< We have tried asking online communities for ideas… didn’t work>

Open innovation and crowdsourcing weren’t born recently but even with some experience, it happens that crowdsourcing efforts do not pay off. eYeka has discovered that the participation follows a 1-9-90 rule meaning that the participants of crowdsourcing projects are formed by 90% spectators, 9% ehthusiasts and 1% creators who actually have the potential to solve brands’ challenges. The key is to unlock the 1%, refine their ideas and develop them.

<We already have lots of ideas>

“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” Thomas Edison says.

If you can’t find an idea among the many ideas you have, that means you need more greater ideas. Simply spending time picking one among existing ideas then refining it doesn’t guarantee success – what if there is no good idea among them? What if the best option remains undiscovered?

<We only want ideas from the target audience>

While cultural differences, as much as an individual’s life experience impact Creativity and people’s power to connect, eYeka is overjoyed to know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Great ideas can indeed come from anywhere! 8% of the 383 contests in the last three years have been won by Creators from the same country as the target audience. This means that fully 92% of eYeka contests have been won by a “foreign” Creator.

<Let’s consult the experts>

Marginity & diversity matters besides expertise. The greatest ideas might come from unexpected audience. Experts are very well placed to validate ideas but their intimacy with the respective subject matter often brings with it conventions and heavy constraints to the creativity process. Experts in creativity are typically not experts in the problematic subject being explored.

< Let’s do a brainstorm>

Competition drives better ideas. “Brainwriting groups generate 20% more ideas and 42% more original ideas as compared to traditional brainstorming groups,” Leigh Thomson says. Crowdsourcing reduces the overall lead time while maximizing available options.

<Our competition is going to guess our strategy>

When everyone is working on the same consumer or business issues, what matters the most is to be the first one who gets it right and executes.

The convention linear agency model is being challenged by a new dynamic model leveraging the ‘Crowd’. Rather than 2 or 3 creative teams working on ideas over 3-4 weeks to deliver 3-5 ideas to the client, the catalytic Creative Crowdsourcing model means hundreds and thousands of creators are working on ideas. This heavy lifting up front means an overall higher quality of considered ideas and a fast track to final execution development compared with the conventional agency model. So it’s fast, fresh and effective.

About Yaoqi Lai

Yaoqi works as a Junior Strategic Planner and Marketing Strategist at eYeka, where she helps us spreading the message about crowdsourcing and creativity. She is passionate about branding, marketing and design.